Hi!
I would like to know if any of you grow plants for sale.
Do you grow plants for sale???
I found my twin soul!!1
Yes, i am thinking of selling streps and african violets as well as wildlife plants. What do you sell? Tell me everything!
Thank you for answering my message
Anna
Hi Anna:
Well, I am about finished with my sales now. I do not sell all year 'round. Because I live in downtown Atlanta, I do best by setting up my driveway and selling to the community one or two Sat. a month in the spring.
I have tried the market bulletin, and it doesn't work well for me, personally. It takes a lot of time to sell out of the bulletin. People want to mainly come and talk, not so much buy plants. They call and want to talk. So for me, I do best by just mass selling in a few hrs.
All of my plants are outdoor plants, things that multiply well. I begin taking cuttings/divisions etc. in the fall into very early spring and pot everything up and place in a holding area for them to get larger. Many people just prefer to dig right out of the ground. Whatever works for you. Streps and Af. violets would do well on Ebay. Sometimes I snoop around the streps. that are on auction (although I don't grow them myself).
What are you hoping to do?
If you want to sell natives, it is more limiting. Most places will not let you advertise (including the market bulletin) for natives unless you are certified.
GGG
Hi GGG!
Thank you for your message.
I just got a place at Marietta's farmers market and am going to start in Sept. I will be selling streps, episcias and pelargoniums as well as wildlife plants.
I have to rush now as I do not have anything yet. Will be busy propagating what I have.
It is a lovely little market for local small growers.
Anna
It is agreat idea, selling from your driveway. Are you on a main road? My problem is, I live in a subdivision so, only peeps that live here drive past.
Do you get many interested and interesting peeps coming to you?
Anna, the farmers market is a great idea because you will get customers going specifically for plants.
I live in a subdivision of sorts. I'm pretty much downtown, not far from the zoo. We have a community message board on the computer, and I put a sign out announcing the sale on the front fence. There is also Craig's List and I advertise on the garage sale forum there. A friend always advertises for me on Yard Hopper too which is pretty new. I don't know if it really attracts anyone. Oh, and we advertise on the web-forum for my hubby's sport team. There are a lot of gardeners there and they tell their friends etc. Some Master Gardeners have also found out about it and email me to ask about times/days as I will propigate odd or unusual things for them, including a few unusual heirloom roses I've got.
But mostly I get people from my community. My main sunny garden completely fills my front yard (and we bought the house next to us, and I'm slowly expanding over there...) so people stop by almost daily to check it out anyway. A lot drive by simply to find out when the next plant sale is...
Can you put up small ads anywhere near your home? I would get a good "annonymous" email address for this, and maybe use a photobucket or other website to take pictures of your plants. You could list your email address on these postings and put photos on a public website to take orders. Helps to maintain some safety in this day and age...only interested parties would really contact you then.
Do you think you could get sale size plants ready for fall, especially streps and episcopas? Pelagorums are not so hard to get a good size by that time. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "wildlife plants???"
GGG
Hi GGG, thank you for the great info and ideas. i will follow them up!
Wow, you do heirloo, roses?!?! I would like some if you are interested in selling cuttings to me.
Wildlife plants are plants/flowers that attract wildlife, specially birds, bees, butterflies and small rodents.
I do my heirloom roses in the winter only. That's the time they "Take" the best for me. All own-root and most (but not all) are climbing. Most are also re-blooming, although I have two that are not (one is an unknown man-eater!!).
I will have more heirloom roses in the spring, right now they are all gone. Doesn't take me long to get "rid" of them!!!
GGG
Hey there GGG & Anna, Is the Marietta farmers market at the Square? Is that the same one or is it somewhere else? I know two sellers listed for the Marietta Square farmers market and it seems to be a good place for selling. I am considering it in the future when I really get into propagation as I can see the time and place when my own garden is filled to the brim and I still need make more plants. :)
I have considered the Market Bulletin, however, I am in a strictly residential area and if I were to start selling from my home I really wonder how long it would be before zoning got a call that I was running a business from my home. I am legally allowed four weekend long yard sales a year and that would certainly be an option.
Hmmm, so folks from the bulletin wanted to talk on the phone and then come and visit and talk some more? That would be a good thing to know before I placed my ad if I ever were to do so.
My greatest advise to anyone wanting to sell and what I will certainly will be doing if and when I ever sell, is have pictures of all available plants when they are at their best and in bloom. When I went to Tawaliga nursery after last years RU, I thought I was done shopping when I started to go through a photo album at the front desk..... Then the questions... where's this one, what is this and where is it? I came home with much more after seeing pictures of what they looked like fully grown and in flower. The same thing happened last year at the Marietta Gardeners plant sale. A great gardener had propagated a huge multitude of brugs and lets be honest... baby brugs aren't the prettiest things in the world.. they look like sticks with overly big floppy leaves. Well, he brought along a full sized page photo of two of them side by side in full bloom in his garden. I sold to over 90% of the people that I talked to about the brug AFTER showing them the picture of the plant in all it's glory. Before then, folks just walked on by without a clue as to what it was. If you know what it is, chances are it is because you already own one right? Great pictures are an awesome sales tool. If I ran a nursery, and maybe i will :) ...all plants would have pictures nearby of them in full bloom.
After this years spring RU, I went to a seller in Jackson who I found from the bulletin. She sells 4 inch perennials for $1.50 and even though I did get a pretty big haul, I probably might have come home with more if she had 1)a list she could email me of all available plants for sale. This would have let me do my own research before going and reading up on everything so that I would have a list of intended purchases before I went, saving time and her effort in telling me what a plant will look like in bloom. and 2) having pictures of all plants. She did have a display garden and a gorgeous one at that, but of course not everything is in bloom all at the same time. And again.. she had to spent time telling me about a plant and what it would look like and I kept going back over and over the plants hoping that I had not missed some unknown gem. Pictures would have solved that!!
Susan
Hi Susan,
good to talk to you.
I am not sure if there is another market in Marietta. This one is by the historical corner. It is small, with around 25 to 30 stalls. I went there last week to check. which sellers do you know? There wer stalls with produce, organic tomato plants, honey, handmade soap, plants and herbs.
I will be starting on Sept 2nd. Come to see me!
I live in a SD and many here are from the "pretty police". they go around telling peeps off for not cutting their grass or having an unkept garden so, no chance of my being able to attract peeps to my "nursery".
What are you planning on propagating? It should be funn having a stall. Have you been to the market growers forum? It has great advice for beginners.
hope to meet you sometime
Anna
Sorry Susan, forgot to thank you for all the great advice.
hi, just "listening" in on this very interesting topic Quick question, what are peeps?
sorry gliz, peeps are the same as people, folks.
thank you for reading the thread!
okee dokee
Maybe we should start an acronym glossary - LOL
I lived in England for 18 years so i learned it there. Yesterday I got a prezzie from a DGer and it was a lovely little "peeps" beanie. Have you seen them at the supermarket?Not the beanie but the candy?
Are you thinking of growing to sell?
Anna, I know Victoria Blackstone from Victorias Secret garden and I know Eddie Rhodes and they both sell at the http://www.mariettasquarefarmersmarket.com/. Is this the same one you are talking about?? I would probably grow and sell perennials, but I'm not quite there yet.
Hey Liz :)
Susan
Yes, it is the same market but last week there were few vendors. I did not see Victoria's stall.
I just hope my stuff will be comparable to theirs. they look so professional and cool.
They have been doing it for a long time and have probably fine tuned their sales technique... You will get there if you start selling :) I would probably look very primative my first few weeks there too.. I would certainly need to go check it out before starting to sell. The pictures show tables with umbrellas.. And the rules state you don't even need a table if you are selling live plants. Did you see the picture of the guy selling right out the back of his pick-up?? Now that's my kind of selling right there! :)
Susan
Hi Susan,
I went there last week just to check. I never thought i would get a place there until I decided to talk toa the organiser. i thought I woudl need a licence and be a commercial grower.
Yes, I thought the man who seels out of the back of his truck.
they studied my application form and accepted me.
When are you thinking of starting?
Anna, I agree that you should talk to Eddie. I don't know him personally, just from gardening forums. I know he wears green shoes :)
He will give you wonderful advice. He seems like a very nice man.
I offer email lists for clients (keep the list for my own records, anyway), however very few ask for them. Out of regular buyers (I have about 200 regulars), maybe only 2 ask for an email list. Most just want me to discribe everything and show them were it is growing, even if it's not in bloom yet. I don't think many of my folks are as dedicated a gardener as you are Ms. DDD. Plus if you sell out of your neighbourhood, most people will know your plants from garden snooping anyway :)
A binder of photos is a good idea, and it never hurts to have one. I have one and also include hands outs in it. I just copy (on the computer) the plant notes in 4 squares and print them on paper, cut them out and put everything in one of those clear pockets in the binder. A photo on one side, the growing directions/notes on the other side. I also have strange recipies for herbs and other things I include, just for fun.
GGG
Hi GGG,
Thank you for all the advice. I noticed that some peeps sell herbs at the market. will it be bad if I take some to sell? Mine will be marked as plants that attract wildlife, not herbs.
Who is Eddie? Do you have his DG name?
GGG, really!!?? not all folks are like me the DDD??!! HAHA~~
Wow 200 regulars!! Thats amazing! :)
I just scored some great "trash" today :)
Eddie Rhodes.. he sells at the Market... I can't find his web site and he is not on Daves. Victoria would give you some pointers too. You can sell whatever you want to sell.. no worries..
It doesn't matter if you sell off the top of a box to get started. people will know you are trying and if you have great prices and know your stuff... they will buy! :)
Susan
thank you very much for all the help and tips.
What is DDD? :o)
Dumpster Diving Diva
:)
Susan
LOL!!!:o))
Is there a website that lists lthe locations, etc. of local farmer's markets? I would love to visit one in my neck of the woods. We do have a lot of roadside veggie/fruit stands but a stroll through a full-blown farmers market would be fun.
gliz, i googled farmers market GA.
thanks spider :) Liz